A warhead having a useful load which is expelled from the warhead in a direction transverse to the flight path from individual chamber disposed in the warhead is known and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,223.
In this known warhead construction, forming part of the state of the art, there is disposed in a central region of the useful load space a hollow central column 34 which is closed at both at its axial ends by means of threaded nuts 36 and 38 on which end plates 30 and 32 are mounted. The end plates are mutually reinforced by reinforcing rods 18, 20, whereby the reinforcing rods are uniformly disposed one behind the other in the radial direction as well as in the peripheral direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the warhead. There is wound a sheet metal star-shaped separating wall 16 (spacer diaphragm member) about the reinforcing rods, 18, 20, whereby this diaphragm defines within the missile casing 14 a plurality of uniform individual chambers, in which a plural arrangement of submunitions is disposed. The separating wall (diaphragm) 16 abuts in the innermost radial extent tangentially against the cylindrical sheath 50 in which a pipe 34 is coaxially disposed, which pipe contains a propellant charge. The missile casing 14 is severed by severing charges 42 which are secured against the inner side of the missile casing 14 centrally with respect to each individual chamber and parallel to the axis of the warhead. The submunition is expelled radially outwardly under the pressure produced by the ignited propellant charge through the gap formed by the severed missile casing 14 as a result of the outwardly bulging diaphragm 16 in a direction transversely to the flight direction from the individual chambers. This arrangement has the drawback that, as a result of the rotation of the warhead, the rotating front end plate, due to its moment of inertia, has a relative rotation with respect to the tail end plate, which corresponds to the rotation angle of the central column 34. The reinforcing rods cannot change this condition because of their high degree of slenderization. As a result of this rotation loads are applied in the peripheral direction due to the moment of inertia of the submunition, whereby neither the separating wall nor the reinforcing rods are capable to absorb these loads and to transfer them without impairment. Consequently deformations of the submunition cannot be excluded, and specifically at the separation of the casing by the deformation of the supports as a result of the action of the cutting charges 42 makes it impossible to avoid the damaging influence on the to be transported submunition forming the useful load. The reinforcing rods are not in a position to transfer loads in the direction of the warhead axis because, as a result of their high slenderness ratio, they only have a reduced buckling stability. As a result of these factors the useful load space of such a known warhead is not capable to meet the growing requirements of high flight precision as is the case with outwardly pivoting guide mechanisms which guide useful loads for maintaining precise guide functions.